In the search for equity and efficiency: accountability reform in French-speaking Belgium

• In Event: "Rethinking Competency-Based Learning, Accountability, and Equity"

Proposal

Accountability has become a centerpiece of educational reforms for decades, promoted as a global policy model to improve performance of public schools and to foster equity in education systems (Verger, Fontdevilla, Parceirisa, 2019). Although accountability policies are based on key principles and mechanisms such as the definition of (content and performance) standards and indicators, the monitoring of students, teachers and schools’ performances in relation to predefined standards, and making schools actors accountable for students’ performances (in particular schools and teachers), accountability policies are not uniform (Trinidad, 2022) but adapted and translated according to national and local specificities. French-speaking Belgium has recently undertaken a profound transformation of its education system and its governance. The “Pact for Excellence in Teaching” involves the transition to reformed governance structures and introduces new accountability schemes in an accountability system that, so far, has been described as soft (Barbana et al., 2020). This major governance reform introduced steering plans (“Plans de pilotage”) that schools must develop, which must incorporate national (performance) targets and the means used by schools to achieve them, and on the basis of which schools are subject to external evaluation by and accountability to the education authorities every three years (accountability cycles last six years). With the Pact for Excellence in Teaching, French-Speaking Belgium has thus taken another step in the road towards accountability. However, if the governance reform promoted by the Pact for Excellence in Teaching can be seen as a clear turning point towards accountability, we question the extent to which this reform represents a major change in the direction of education policy in French-speaking Belgium, or is part of a series of policy initiatives that began in the 1990s.
To this end, our qualitative empirical study analyzes the trajectory (Ball, 1997) of the accountability policy introduced in 2019 in French-speaking Belgium, situating this policy within the evolutions, trends, and disruptions of educational policies in French-speaking Belgium since the 1990s. Drawing on the insights of critical sociology, we consider policies as products of compromise, crystallizing power relations, carrying a ‘regime of truth’ (Ball, 1993), and sharing distinct conceptions of the problem to be solved. Our analysis, which adopts a socio-historical perspective, thus highlight a series of key elements which, on the one hand, have contributed to the emergence of this policy and, on the other, key rationales at the heart of the policy rhetoric surrounding its adoption. To this end, we review recent (2000-2023) scientific literature (n25) published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and focusing on the governance of the education system and accountability policies in the context of French-speaking Belgium (covering the period 1990-2023). We analyze the institutional documentation produced in relation to the Pact for Excellence in Teaching (2015-2023) (government speeches, reports produced by expert groups, normative and legislative documents produced by the government n20). We rely on content analysis to analyze the policy trajectory and to highlight the key narratives that have surrounded the promotion of the policy and its enactment.
Our results first point out that the accountability reform promoted is part of series of policy initiatives since the 1990s aimed at strengthening the role of central authorities in regulating an education system that has historically been highly decentralized and fragmented. If low levels of performance and striking inequalities have been widely discussed in the scientific and public arenas, key narratives related to the education system quality have been used to promote the Pact for Excellence in Teaching and its governance reform (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, 2015). "Effectiveness" and "Equity" have been presented as major issues, while "autonomy", “responsibility”, and "accountability" are promoted as key levers by the Pact to tackle these issues. Here “Autonomy and responsibility refer to collective and participatory modes of operation that must involve teachers in the management of the school” (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, 2016, p. 113). Within schools, this involves fostering “a collective dynamic of ‘learning organization’ and a substantial evolution of the teaching profession linked to the current challenges faced by schools” (Ibid., p. 112).
Third, if the political discourse promoting this accountability reform claims to advocate a reflexive approach to accountability, we find here the classic rhetoric underlying the implementation of accountability policies from which a more rational management and steering of the education system is expected, and which calls for a greater responsibility of educational agents towards students' results. Moreover, the policy tools promoted by the Pact – steering plans, hierarchical and bureaucratic accountability mechanisms, close monitoring of low-performing schools, possibility of sanctions for non-compliant teachers –, can be seen as promoting a neo-bureaucratic logic (Yerly & Maroy, 2017) coupled with strong pressure on schools and teachers. It would thus be necessary to analyze whether, and to what extent, French-speaking Belgium is implementing an innovative and reflexive approach to educational accountability.

Authors

• Annelise Voisin, University of Liege

• Virginie März, UC Louvain